Diagnosis: Alien
by Hobbit985
Summary: A teaching hospital in New Jersey opens it's doors to two undercover alien hunters from Cardiff. House/Torchwood crossover. Set after 2x10 of Torchwood *ignoring the end of 2x06* and 4x03 of House, but possible spoilers after that as well.
1. Princeton

Night time at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Doctor Gregory House was still in his office, checking through some files that Cameron had helpfully left on his desk. Damn admin. He was supposed to have lackeys to do this for him. He definitely needed to hire another doctor or two. His team was quite small; it might be fun to throw a couple of strangers into the mix.

No sooner had this thought come into his mind than the phone rang. Frowning slightly, and assuming it was Wilson, he picked it up, idly flicking his pen onto the desk.

"House," he said glancing up at the glass door and out into the lit corridor.

"I've got two transfer doctor's coming over tomorrow, was wondering if they could sit in on a differential?"

House sighed and rolled his eyes. Not Wilson, Cuddy. Damn. If he'd realised he certainly wouldn't have picked up the phone. The idea of hiring some new doctors had seemed a good one when it had been his, but now Cuddy was suggesting he take on two transfers he was dead against it.

"No."

"Not a question House."

House sighed again, impatiently this time, making sure that Cuddy could hear his disapproval.

"Where are they from?" He asked, wondering if they'd be coming by plane and he wouldn't be able to send them home again. If he was lucky, they'd be transfers from inside New Jersey.

"Cardiff, Wales," Cuddy replied.

"That's like a slang term for New Jersey right? As in America?"

"Wales as in the UK. But the two doctors are both originally from London," Cuddy said. "They're faxing over their details as we speak."

"Oh great," House said in mock enthusiasm. "Maybe we can all have tea and play some cricket together?"

"Funny. Look, they'll be here eight o' clock tomorrow so you better be ready," Cuddy sounded like she was about to hang up without waiting for a reply.

"No patient!" House said quickly. "I don't have any zebra's running about in the office at the moment."

"Well I'm sure something will turn up!"

Wilson appeared in his doorway then, looking at him expectantly. House pointed at the phone and mimed with his hand to show that Cuddy was going on in his ear. Wilson smiled slightly and sat down on a chair, briefcase on the floor to wait for him to finish.

"Right, well, if something comes up I'd be happy to torture the Brits for you," House continued. "But the chances of me being here at eight in the morning are about as likely as me doing Wilson."

Wilson shot him a scathing look. Evidently that remark was for his benefit more than Cuddy's.

"See you at eight then," Cuddy replied as House put the phone down.

"What was all that about?" Wilson asked.

"Cuddy wants me to baby sit some British doctors who, for god only knows what reason, are coming here tomorrow," House quickly put the files on his desk into his draw, making a mental note to give them back to Cameron to finish at some point. He stood up, grabbed his cane and bag and limped towards Wilson.

"I came to ask if you fancied a Chinese?" Wilson said, standing up too.

"Yeah, sure," House nodded. "But only if it's going to lead somewhere."

"Like where?" Wilson looked at him dubiously as they wandered out into the corridor and headed for the lift.

"Romantic meal-"

"Chinese is hardly romantic."

"T.V., beer, you'll probably end up sleeping on the couch, whatever," House looked at him then and Wilson stopped, frowning at him.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

House looked like he was about to answer truthfully, but somehow, admitting he needed help was not something House did.

"I just… might need a hand in the night," he said quietly. He didn't add that he'd collapsed on the way to the bathroom the previous evening.

"Well I've missed a few episodes of the L Word," Wilson agreed, knowing better than to make a big thing of House's plea.

"Brilliant!" House said, continuing towards the lift. "Come on then."

--

House hadn't been too bad that evening, but he had woken up at three in the morning in screaming agony. He hadn't been able to get up, but after throwing a book, several bottles of Vicodin (which he later regretted chucking out of reach) and his cane at the door to his room, Wilson wandered in to see what the matter was. There was nothing Wilson could do to sooth the pain medically, but he made coffee and sat with House until the pain subsided enough for him to fall asleep again.

In the end House was in work long before eight, but only because he couldn't stand lying in bed staring at the ceiling and listening to Wilson's levelled breathing next to him. Apparently the Oncologist hadn't been able to make it back to the sofa before he fell asleep again.

It was slightly strange to find the boardroom empty when he entered his office. Usually Cameron at least was sitting at the table working and if there was a case then all three of his ducklings would be waiting.

When they finally did drift in House was juggling with his Vicodin bottles. He always found it fascinating how they would watch and wait for him to stop before talking. He caught the last bottle and opened it, swallowing a pill quickly.

"Cameron, got something for you," he said pointing at his only female doctor.

"Oh?" She sounded hopeful. As though she was expecting something… House paused, frowning.

"Is it your birthday?" He asked.

"Few days time yeah," Cameron was smiling and the red tinge to her cheeks told House that he had better tread carefully.

"Ah…" He pulled the files out of his bottom draw and handed them to her as he passed, heading into the boardroom. "Birthday present."

"I put these on your desk for you to finish them!" Cameron complained following him.

"The reason I hired you is so that I don't have to do admin," House replied, knowing that the real reason Cameron was annoyed was that she'd been expecting an actual present.

The only reply he got was an angry growl as she slammed the files down on the table and began flicking through them. It was probably her time of the month as well House decided. He'd never thought to keep tabs on Cameron. Cuddy yes, because she could shut him down if he said the wrong thing.

"We've not got a case today," Chase said as he watched House making coffee.

"I know," House nodded. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"Doesn't that mean you should be in the clinic?" Foreman asked.

"Yeah, but so should you three," House glanced round at them. "Anyone complaining? No? Didn't think so."

"But Cuddy said-"

"What Cuddy said is nothing for you to worry about," House stirred his mug. "She's my boss not yours."

"And don't you forget it," Cuddy said.

House turned and saw her stood at the end of the table, two young doctors with her.

"Transfers," she said pointing at them. "They're good. Dealt with plague, should be your sort of people."

House raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything until Cuddy had handed over their credentials and left.

"I'm-"

"Foreman, Chase and Cameron," House interrupted, pointing at each of his lackey's in turn. "I'm Doctor House and I'm going to be the one torturing you for the next twelve hours."

The woman who had started to speak quickly snapped her mouth shut again. House smiled slightly, she'd learnt fast.

"I'm Doctor Owen Harper and this is Doctor Toshiko Sato, we'll be the ones insolently outsmarting you for the next twelve hours," Harper said, holding out a file. "Hypocalcaemia and anaemia. Thought it might interest you."

"Hypocalcaemia and anaemia is boring-"

"And their eyes are widely spaced." Harper grinned at him.

House narrowed his eyes slightly and took the file. Maybe having the transfers around could be fun.


	2. Cardiff

Jack Harkness wandered round the Hub in the early morning stretching. For once he'd managed to get a few hours kip. He didn't feel refreshed physically, but mentally he was alright. That might've had more to do with the Welshman kipping next to him than the actual sleep itself.

Yawning he glanced at the computer monitors. Tosh had been tracking some strange electromagnetic readings the night before. She hadn't been entirely sure what was emitting them as she had never come across the frequency before. Still, it appeared to have travelled on from UK now. Not there problem anymore.

Jack headed back to his office and began composing an e-mail. As soon as he knew where the reading was going he'd have to let the appropriate authorities know. God he hated getting in contact with the others.

He didn't realise that Ianto was up until he heard the soft thunk of a coffee mug being placed on his desk. Jack glanced up and smiled slightly.

"You could've stayed in bed a bit longer," he said. None of the main lights were on in the Hub, so Ianto was lit only by a desk lamp and the eerie blue glow emitting from the numerous plants Owen had spread about the Hub. He'd been treating them with a special formula that had come through the Rift. Apparently it was an experiment to try and save on electricity; that and the main lights disturbed Myfanwy and she would be up squawking all night.

"It was cold without you," Ianto replied quietly, smiling through the twilight.

"Yeah, sorry," Jack shrugged, pulling the coffee mug towards him. "I was getting bored so I thought I'd come up to check on the EM readings."

Ianto nodded and, smoothing down his suit, went to make himself useful before the others turned up.

Jack frowned in frustration at his computer monitor. Apparently America was already dealing with a crisis of their own and as Torchwood, Cardiff, had detected the readings first, they were being asked to deal with it.

"Great," Jack muttered. He began sending details through to Tosh's computer. She'd be able to get a better location reading than he would. Sighing Jack stood up and went to go and pull on some clean clothes.

--

Later that morning, and after several rounds of coffee, Jack wandered out of his office to find out how Tosh was doing. She had found it odd that the American authorities weren't dealing with it but after a quick mutter that sounded suspiciously like 'might have slept with some of them and never called back' she soon cleared it from her mind.

"I've tracked the readings to a hospital in New Jersey," Tosh pulled her glasses off and rubbed her face momentarily. "I can't be any more specific than that. So we're going to have to infiltrate."

"Infiltrate?" Jack didn't sound too thrilled at the prospect.

"Go undercover," Tosh confirmed. "The best bet is we all fly over there, Owen and I pose as transfer doctors, that way we'll get access to medical records without drawing too much attention. Gwen can interrogate people, do her police inspector thing, and you and Ianto can keep an eye on the tracking equipment that I'll have to set up wherever it is that we stay."

Jack nodded. Sounded like a plan to him.

"Ianto?"

"Yes sir?"

"I need you to sort out transport, preferably a private airline. The amount of kit we're gonna have to take is going to draw attention," Jack paused as Ianto coughed.

"Sorry," Ianto looked at him expectantly to continue.

"And I'll need you to book a couple of hotel rooms near…" Jack trailed off and glanced at Tosh.

"Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital," she said.

"I'm on it," Ianto headed off, just as Owen appeared at the top of the stairs to the autopsy bay.

"Did you say Princeton?" He asked.

"Yes, why?" Tosh frowned slightly.

"As in New Jersey? As in America?" Owen was glancing between Tosh and Jack looking particularly excited.

"Owen, what's-"

"Gregory House!" Owen interrupted. "Only _the_ best diagnostician ever!"

Jack had no idea who this Gregory House was, but if it got Owen interested in work then he wasn't going to question it.

"House…" Tosh looked like she'd heard the name before, but couldn't quite place it.

"Remember last year when we opened the Rift and had all those plague patients fall through?" Owen continued. "Well I made a rather witty remark about House to one of the idiot doctors there. You asked me about it later and I sent you all that information."

Tosh still didn't look like she knew what he was on about.

"Oh come on Tosh! You used one of his team's notes about a dying cancer girl when we were at Uni!" Owen scowled at her, apparently appalled that she didn't remember.

"Oh!" Tosh looked like a light bulb had flicked on above her head. She quickly pulled up a file on her computer. The picture was of a very miserable looking, fairly old doctor, clutching a cane. "Gregory House."

Jack leant in closer to read over the information they had. A doctor renowned world wide for his amazing work in diagnostics.

"He doesn't look too happy," he noted, indicating the picture.

"Infarction, his girlfriend wanted him to amputate the leg but he refused, so after he was put into a chemically induced coma she had the dead muscle cut away against his wishes," Owen said.

Jack turned to look at him.

"You've got his entire file memorized?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to study under the guy," Owen said defensively. "But as soon as I graduated alien invasions got in the way."

"Ah," Jack nodded. "Ok. Well you and Tosh are going in under cover, so you might as well set yourselves up as transfers for him. I mean, if an alien is hiding in a hospital, he's gonna display some odd symptoms hiding as a human. Diagnostic department is gonna be the first to hear about it."

Ianto reappeared then, holding his PDA and tapping out something with the stylus in his hand.

"Found a flat that's more than big enough for all of us, top floor, flats underneath are currently empty" he said. "I thought it might be more likely to go unnoticed than if we were in a hotel with lots of nosey neighbours."

"Good idea," Jack nodded.

"And there's a private aircraft available as and when, friend of mine said we could use it," Ianto looked down at his feet. "He won't ask any questions if we pay him the right cash, but he'll do it for less because I'm the one who doesn't want the questions asked."

Owen watched Ianto suspiciously.

"Is you friend a drug smuggler by any chance?" He asked.

"No… he…" Ianto sighed. "He's an ex, ok?"

Owen tried hard no to laugh.

"The tea-boy's got an interesting past," he said. "Who'd have guessed?"

Ianto looked like he was about to protest but another coughing fit stopped him. Jack looked at him worriedly.

"Are you ok?" He asked, reaching out to rub Ianto's back. He straightened up.

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Just a cold."

"He has sounded coldish all day," Owen nodded, checking him over quickly. "He should be fine as long as he doesn't work too hard."

"Once we're set up in New Jersey you can lie in bed while I keep an eye on the equipment," Jack promised.


	3. Short Fuses

After solving several very interesting cases the thrill of working under Doctor Gregory House was wearing off. In fact Owen was starting to become even more irritable than normal. It was quite funny how similar to House he was.

"So where did you study in England?" Cameron asked Tosh as they watched House and Owen arguing again, through the glass walls.

"Oxford," Tosh said.

"Wow, that's one of the best isn't it?" Chase replied in admiration.

"Umm… I guess…" Tosh went a little bit pink. It was a good job she hadn't mentioned that she was so smart a government think tank had snapped her up the minute she graduated.

Owen suddenly threw open the door and charged into the board room causing Tosh to jump slightly. The other three didn't move. Evidently they were used to dealing with House's moods and therefore Owen's were nothing to bother about.

"God he's so stubborn," he growled sitting down beside Tosh and pulling the nearest medical book towards him.

"Hey!" House had followed him through. "As long as you're here, I'm your boss and you have to do everything I say."

Owen rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Despite the increasing arguments over patient treatment, Owen and House still had an enormous amount of respect for each other.

"Right," House pulled out a black marker pen. "We can cross off the anaphylaxis, since it was an allergic reaction caused by an inadequate medical history."

"Excuse me!" Owen interrupted. "I knew she was allergic to peanuts. It's not my fault that stupid nurse didn't check the food being delivered."

"As her doctor's you should be monitoring what goes into and comes out of her body," House continued his anger dissipating now as he frowned at the whiteboard. "So that takes a few things off the table, but does put back viral infection."

"With no fever?" Foreman sounded doubtful.

"She's got a fever now," House pointed out.

"Yeah, her throat collapsed as well," Cameron said. "I think choking would get me a little hot under the collar too."

House turned to look at them, the marker still clutched in his hand. Sighing, he chucked the marker onto the table and limped towards the board room door.

"Where are you going?" Chase asked.

"To see a man about a dog," House replied, limping down the corridor.

Tosh and Owen glanced at each other and then Cameron, Chase and Foreman questioningly.

"He's going to rant to Wilson," Cameron explained.

"Wilson?" Owen asked.

"He's the head of the Oncology department, and House's best friend," Chase added.

"House has friends?" Owen sounded like he didn't think such an arrogant jerk could be capable of having anything other than subordinates.

"Owen, you might want to take a look in the mirror before you start contradicting the way Doctor House works," Tosh elbowed him gently.

"His office is right next door," Foreman continued. "It's where House disappears to when he's fed up with us. He's usually in a better mood when he returns."

"Hang on," Owen frowned. "Why is the head of Oncology right next to the head of Diagnostics?"

Cameron, Chase and Foreman glanced at each other momentarily stuck for an answer. They'd never thought about it before.

"Coincidence?" Chase suggested.

"It's always been like that… since long before any of us where hired…" Cameron shrugged.

"I think it's just that House is an ass and Cuddy decided that she ought to cut him a break. If he gets a case where he suspects cancer, he's not gonna want to limp half way across the hospital to find Wilson," Foreman stood up, clearing away some of the files. "And I don't know about you guys, but if House comes back and finds that we haven't done an LP he's gonna call us idiots and rant about how we never do anything he asks."

House hadn't bothered to knock, he had simply opened Wilson's office door and collapsed onto the sofa, stretching his legs out carefully and sighing slightly as he twirled his cane with one hand.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Wilson asked without looking up from the files he was looking through.

"Harper, is an annoying little-"

"Have you ever thought," Wilson interrupted quickly. "That the reason he bugs you so much is that he's a younger version of you?"

House stopped playing with his cane and looked at Wilson as though he'd suggested it were impossible to get an STD through sex.

"Have you ever thought that _that_ is exactly the sort of unhelpful comment I was hoping to avoid by coming in here?" House asked.

Wilson looked up and clasped his hands together in front of him, thinking carefully before he spoke. House rolled his eyes. He hated it when Wilson did this.

"You need someone who's like you," Wilson continued. "The reason you're so annoyed is because you're making the same mistakes he is. From your point of view they look like stupid ones, but only because you have years more medical knowledge than him. If you have yourself on your own team, then you can have twice as many brilliant ideas, and Cuddy's more likely to accept the radical treatments because there are two of you suggesting them."

"What a load of crap," House sat up, swinging his legs onto the floor again. "You don't seriously believe that?"

Wilson shrugged.

"Maybe you need to be able to look at yourself like this, to make sure you don't cross the line," he said quietly.

House didn't say anything. He knew what Wilson was saying made sense and that was exactly why he was going to ignore it.

"Did you tell Cuddy about last night?" He asked instead.

"No, why?" Wilson frowned slightly.

"Good," House nodded. "I don't want her knowing that the pain's worse. She'll only think it's clouding my judgement."

"Is it bad all the time?" Wilson looked at House, worry and concern etched over his face.

He ought to tell Wilson. He was, after all, House's best friend. But he knew that Wilson would only worry more and try to help, and House didn't want that friend. He wanted the friend who ate Chinese at Christmas and stayed up in the night when the pain got bad.

"Just at night," he said finally, settling on something that wasn't a complete lie.

"Just be careful how much Vicodin you take," Wilson said quietly.

"Wilson, I can't just-"

"Please, just make sure you don't OD," Wilson interrupted. "I'd much rather have you pissed at me and in pain, than dead because you over did the pain meds."

House nodded again.

"Fine," he said standing up. "If it'll make you feel better."

Wilson glanced back at the files he was marking. House paused in the office doorway, looking back at his friend for a moment.

"Back to the funny farm," he sighed, only turning to leave when he'd seen Wilson's half hidden smile.


	4. Crossed Wires

The journey across Atlantic had been a long and tiring one, but once they reached New Jersey it didn't take long for the Torchwood team to set up. The apartment Ianto had found for them was perfect. Spacious but not too obvious, no one would ever think that there was a secret organisation setting up alien hunting equipment there.

They arrived shortly after midnight and Jack had ordered Tosh and Owen to get some rest as they'd have to be early in order to head to the hospital. So that just left him, Gwen and Ianto to set up the tracking devices. It wasn't difficult, just long winded. A lot of connecting wires and checking aerials.

Ianto was sat in one corner, surrounded by various bits and pieces, deep in thought as he concentrated on the task at hand. He only paused every so often to cough or sneeze. Owen had checked him over and informed them all that late nights combined with the stress of working for Torchwood had made him susceptible to illness and he had caught a cold.

Jack could see Gwen was watching Ianto with some concern and had been for a while now. She wasn't getting any work done like that, so, clearing his throat pointedly, Jack headed over to the sick Welshman.

"Why don't you get some rest?" He suggested lightly, sitting beside Ianto.

"I'm fine," Ianto insisted, bleating out his usual mantra.

"Ianto," Jack pulled the wires out of his hands. "Please. I don't want you making yourself really ill."

"Jack," Ianto pulled the wires back, looking at him just as seriously. "I'm ok. Look, let me finish here and then I'll rest for as long as you want."

"Ok," Jack sighed in defeat. Well if Ianto was going to insist on staying up, then Jack might as well stay up too. He glanced at Gwen as she yawned. Might as well let her get some rest instead. "Why don't you go to bed then?"

"I'm fine," Gwen shook her head.

"Does no one listen to me anymore? I know I abandoned you for a few months but I still have your best interests at heart," Jack said gently. "It doesn't take three of us to do this."

"Ok, ok," Gwen stood up. "I'll see you in the morning."

Jack waited until she had disappeared before turning to Ianto. He opened his mouth to speak, but had to stop whilst Ianto had another coughing fit.

"Sorry," he spluttered finally. "Owen said it'll probably get worse before it gets better."

Jack nodded, rubbing Ianto's back comfortingly. Ianto took a few deep breaths, clutching a tissue in his hand and glancing round the apartment.

"You know, we could get a place like this," he said quietly.

"What?" Jack frowned slightly.

"I dunno…" Ianto shifted, not meeting Jack's gaze. "We could… move in together. When all this is over and we're back in Cardiff."

"Oh…" Jack felt his heart sink. He had known this conversation was coming, but he'd hoped it was a few months off. "Right… I can see your mistake…"

"What mistake?" Ianto looked at him now.

"We're not…" Jack paused. "This was never meant to be more than… sex. I mean I care about you, but…"

Ianto looked like a kicked puppy. He stood up quickly and Jack knew that he really shouldn't have said anything. He should've held off telling Ianto, but he didn't think the Welshman had fallen for him.

"Ianto, wait-"

"Why?" Ianto asked sounding hurt. He looked back at Jack. "Why does everything have to be about you?"

"What?" Jack frowned. "Ianto I thought you knew-"

"Clearly not!" Ianto snapped. "If I'd known you were just using me for sex then I never would have started this stupid thing in the first place!"

He coughed, growling to himself, annoyed that he was showing what he thought to be weakness in front of Jack.

"Ianto… I'm sorry… but you know I can't die… I just don't want to get hurt-"

"Oh but its ok for you to break my heart?" Ianto shivered. "Just forget I said anything ok?"

"Ianto-" Jack winced as Ianto slammed the door to one of the bedrooms.

--

Ianto ignored Jack the next morning. In fact, he didn't get up until long after Tosh and Owen had left for the hospital. He looked even worse than he had the night before. His eyes were red and puffy, he was even paler than normal and he was shivering.

Gwen had been fussing round him, making him sit in one of the big arm chairs in the flat and bringing him special lemon tea's and fresh tissues. Jack decided to leave her to it. Someone needed to care for Ianto and he doubted that the Welshman would let the Captain anywhere near him.

Mid morning Gwen pulled Jack aside into the kitchen to talk to him. Sighing, Jack followed reluctantly knowing that she was about to ask about the tension. Even Owen, who was emotionally oblivious most of the time, could sense the cold in the air before he left that morning, and that was before Ianto was even up.

"What have you done?" She asked, rounding on Jack.

"Nothing!" He protested. "Why do you think it's my fault?!"

"Because Ianto hasn't looked that down since…" Gwen faltered. She'd been going to say 'since Lisa' and Jack knew it.

"Look… we just got our wires crossed," Jack said carefully. "He thought… I didn't want a relationship and he did. End of."

"You what?" Gwen rolled her eyes. "Nice one."

"What?" Jack flustered.

"You might have wanted to tell him that _before_ he fell for you," Gwen replied.

"Before-"

"He's smitten with you Jack!" Gwen shook her head. "How can you not see that? Ever since… well… ever since you returned he's been so much happier."

"Oh…" Jack's eyes widened. "He thought…"

The date. Jack hadn't really meant it to sound that way. He'd just wanted to spend time with Ianto, work his way back into his good books. But maybe Ianto had misinterpreted? Or maybe… maybe Jack had said it that way purposefully? He knew that he'd started to care for Ianto a little too much. That was why he hadn't wanted to make it more serious. If he admitted, even just to himself, that he was in a relationship with Ianto, it would hurt so much more when it had to end.

"Look," Gwen sighed. "I'm not saying go out with him. If you don't love him then it's not fair to string him along. But make it up to him. Don't hurt him like this."

Jack bit his tongue. He had a few choice words for Gwen, but decided he'd rather not have more team members annoyed at him. It was all well and good for her with Rhys, but his life was different. He couldn't die.

"I'm gonna go out for a bit," Gwen interrupted his thoughts. "I thought I'd do a bit of shopping. There isn't much food in so…"

She trailed off waiting for Jack's approval and he nodded. If she left then he would have an empty flat and would be able to talk to Ianto alone, try and fix things. Gwen didn't take long to disappear. She quickly gathered together her mobile and spare key for the flat (though Jack doubted that he or Ianto would leave) and wandered off to get some groceries.

"Ianto?" Jack wandered slowly into the living room, the tracking equipment humming softly. After Ianto had stormed off to bed, Jack had finished off setting up, not bothering with sleep himself.

"What?" Ianto's reply was muffled from behind another tissue as he sneezed.

"I'm sorry… about last night," Jack came to a stop beside the armchair where Ianto sat, gazing out the window across the city.

"Forget about it," Ianto shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"It does," Jack said. "I didn't mean to mislead you, but I obviously did. So… I'm sorry."

"What do you want Jack?" Ianto asked looking at him. "Forgiveness so you can rest easy?"

"No I-"

"I don't really think we've got anything to talk about, do you?" Ianto glared at him.

Jack opened his mouth to say something else and then shut it again. Maybe he should leave it a few days before he approached Ianto about the subject again.


	5. I Never

Owen and Tosh had been on House's team little over a week and so far, they'd only had two cases, which, according to Chase, was one more than they usually had. Both had displayed unusual symptoms but neither of them had been aliens.

Tosh had however, managed to hack into the hospitals database and send all the patient files to the laptop in the Torchwood apartment. She had decided that since the alien had not had any obviously alien symptoms they had better check through every file carefully for something that may have been missed. Fast healing times, unusually intelligent patients, that sort of thing.

Jack wanted to keep a low profile and only enter the hospital when it was absolutely necessary so for most of the second week in New Jersey, he, Gwen and Ianto simply went through the patient case files until they had narrowed down the subjects to twenty.

Tosh had also considered the possibility that the alien they were tracking may have disguised itself as an inanimate object, plant, or member of staff, so when she wasn't in the board room she used a nifty little piece of technology she had created from scavenged alien artefacts to track any Rift activity in the building.

She found three sources. Now taking into account the amount of time she and Owen spent near the Rift, she knew the first two must be their signals. The third was moving, so it wasn't an object or plant, but she spent hours stalking every member of staff and knew it wasn't any of them either. So the alien was definitely disguised as a patient.

Jack decided to give it a few more days before they stormed the hospital. There was still a chance that the alien might come to House's attention, or it might just clear off by itself. It did seem odd that it was simply hiding in a hospital. No suggestions of trying to take over, it was just trying to remain undetected.

Ianto still wasn't talking to Jack, but the Captain was pleased to see that the cold was improving. Apart from the occasional cough or sneeze, Ianto seemed perfectly healthy again.

Gwen had been spending a lot of time deep in conversation with Ianto. Well… it wasn't really a conversation. She seemed to be doing all the talking whilst Ianto sat in stony silence listening. Jack had the feeling she was telling him that 'he's not worth getting upset over' and 'you'll find someone much better suited for you'. Somehow he knew that it wasn't helping and was probably just irritating Ianto even more.

When Tosh and Owen returned home each evening they too tried to talk to Ianto, not about anything in particular, just anything. Jack found it a little depressing that even Owen was being nice to Ianto. That meant that everyone thought their Captain was in the wrong had been unnecessarily cruel.

Midway through week two, Jack had had enough. He went out and bought a large bottle of whiskey before gathering the whole team in the living room, round a small coffee table, shot glasses in front of each of them. He sat at one end, with Tosh on his left, Owen next to her, Gwen on his right, and Ianto at the opposite end.

"Right," he said. "I'm fed up of everyone looking at me like I killed a puppy. We're going to play a game and you're going to bloody well enjoy it-"

"Hate to be a party pooper," Owen interrupted. "And as much as I hate to turn away alcohol, Tosh and I have to be up early tomorrow and turning up with a hang over isn't going to look too professional."

"Chill, I've got these," he pulled out bottle of pills. "As long as we each take one of these before we start, no one will wake up with hangover."

As they divided up the pills between them, Jack continued explaining what they were going to.

"We're going to play a game called 'I never'," he said. "You guys are always saying that we don't know each other as well as we should… that I keep secrets I shouldn't…"

He looked down for a moment.

"So this is a way of discovering things about each other, ok?" He glanced up at each of them in turn as they all nodded. His gaze met Ianto's briefly, but the Welshman remained completely impassive and unreadable.

Jack poured out the whiskey into each of the shot glasses. When he was sure they were all sat comfortably with alcohol in front of them he spoke again.

"I'll go first, just so everyone gets the idea," he said.

"Jack, everyone who's been to Uni knows how to play 'I never'," Owen said scathingly.

"Fine," Jack shot Owen a dirty look. "I'll still go first. I never wore pink underwear."

"What kind of question is-" Gwen paused as she watched Owen drink his shot reluctantly.

"If anyone so much as smiles," he warned pointing at them all.

Gwen couldn't help but giggle. Ianto too drank his shot and poured more into his and Owen's empty glasses.

"Ok, Tosh, your go," Jack said, nodding to her.

"I never dumped someone," Tosh said.

"What? Really?" Owen frowned at her.

"The other person always did the dumping," Tosh sighed.

Each of the other members drank their shots. Once they were refilled, Jack turned to Gwen.

"Ok, go," he said.

"I never slept with an alien," Gwen was looking at Jack as she said this, clearly desperate to know if his wild tales were true. She had apparently forgotten Mary and had to shoot an apologetic look at Tosh as she downed her shot.

However Jack and Tosh weren't the only ones. Owen bought his glass to his lips again and even Ianto had to drink his.

"You…" Gwen looked at them all. "You've all slept with aliens."

"Apparently so," Jack nodded, looking at Ianto. That was something he'd never known about the Welshman. "Your go Owen."

"I've never had a relationship with a member of the same sex," Owen said.

"You can't have that!" Tosh protested. "You've slept with plenty of men!"

"Yeah, slept with," Owen replied. "Never had a relationship with them."

Sighing, Tosh once again drank her shot, as did Jack and Ianto. Once they were refilled all eyes turned to Ianto. He was looking at his glass, deep in thought, obviously considering his question carefully.

"I've never used anyone just for sex," he said finally.

The whole room was silent, Tosh, Gwen and Owen glancing between Jack and Ianto as the Captain and the Tea-Boy stared each other out. The tension was unbearable so Owen quickly downed his shot.

"Might I just say in my defence," Owen said quietly. "That he knew the score and he was just looking for sex too."

No one said anything. Jack picked up his glass and swirled the amber coloured liquid around before placing it back on the coffee table.

"Come on Jack," Ianto said, sounding eerily unlike himself. "I thought this game was about telling the truth."

"It is," Jack nodded. "But I've never used anyone just for sex."

"Oh really? So you didn't use anyone? Not once?" Ianto tensed slightly, waiting for Jack's reply.

"Not just for sex no," Jack shook his head.

"So what was I then?" Ianto snapped. "You didn't want anything more from me. I'd have said that was using someone."

"I wasn't using you for sex," Jack said calmly. "I wanted to be with someone. Just be. Not in a relationship. Not love someone. I just wanted to know that I wasn't alone in those dark hours when all I have for company are my thoughts."

Ianto stood up abruptly heading for his bedroom again and slamming the door. The rest of the team sat for a moment in awkward silence before Jack refilled Owen's glass.

"Whose go is it?" He asked looking at them all.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" Gwen said tentatively.

"Why would I? He clearly doesn't want to talk to me," there was no mistaking the pained tone of Jack's voice. "So I won't force myself on him."


	6. Q And A

House had noticed that the British transfers were slightly… unusual. Looking over their details (which he'd had to 'borrow' from Cuddy's office) there was something not quite right. Everything was there. Education, training, medical details, but House still felt something was out of place. The way they acted… was… He couldn't put his finger on it. They just seemed… older than they actually were. Their medical knowledge was impressive, almost as good as his lackeys, which was saying something since he'd trained his lackeys himself.

They also seemed somewhat distracted. House would occasionally bump into one of them wandering about the hospital keeping busy whilst they didn't have a case and they almost seemed to forget that they were working for House.

Still, maybe it was just a British thing? He'd mentioned it to Wilson, but the Oncologist seemed convinced that it was either his imagination or he was making it up to avoid dealing with other issues. House wasn't sure what 'other issues' Wilson was referring to, but he didn't ask either. Whatever they were, talking about them would only bore him.

"What are you doing?" House frowned as he limped back into his office. He'd only been away for ten minutes whilst he went and nicked some of Wilson's food, but in that time, Harper and Sato had reappeared in the board room with medical files in their possession.

"Got a new case," Sato replied absent-mindedly without looking up. "Fever, tachycardia and seizure."

"Mm, not really-"

"Happened when they were having sex," Harper added.

"Slightly more interesting," House sounded tempted, but his mind had already come up with several explanations for the symptoms.

"That's both partners," Sato looked up. "Two guys simultaneously had these symptoms… in the middle of having sex."

House limped towards the white board, picking up the black marker pen to begin writing down the symptoms.

"Ok, ok, you got me," he glanced at them. "Where are the rest of my team?"

"I think Cameron and Chase are having lunch, not sure where Foreman is," Harper shrugged.

"Page them and tell them to get their overpaid asses back up here," House said.

Tosh and Owen glanced at each other, but did as House asked. In truth, they hadn't actually been assigned this case. They had faked the sign over because the idea of two people having the same symptoms in the exact same moment sounded suspicious and they suspected alien involvement.

After paging the other three, Owen lied about needing the loo and nipped outside long enough to send Jack a message updating him on the situation.

Jack read the message gloomily. At least that was one problem they were close to solving. His personal problem on the other hand was a completely different matter. Ianto had not so much as looked at him since they'd played 'I never' let alone spoken to him. Every time Jack tried to make things up to him by bringing him a drink, or making him something to eat, it was ignored by Ianto.

Gwen too had been frosty with Jack. Evidently she felt he was being big headed and stupid and ought to apologise to Ianto, but, as he kept pointing out, all Jack's apologies were being snubbed.

Jack was getting bored. Not only was he stuck in a flat whilst Owen and Tosh worked on trying to figure out who the alien was disguised as, but he couldn't even have any fun whilst he was there. He knew if he was being denied eye contact and conversation then there was absolutely no way Ianto was ever going to have sex with him.

The days passed slowly and the two patients that Tosh and Owen had been working on, turned out not to be aliens, or have any kind of alien symptoms. According to them their symptoms were a result of a close relationship and experimental poisons. Or something. Jack hadn't really been listening properly.

At the start of week three however, Jack decided he'd had enough. They were no closer to finding the alien so he took the files that they had narrowed down to, and began to organise an infiltration.

"Right, Gwen, Ianto," Jack said once they were all the living room. Ianto still refused to look at Jack. "Ianto, please. If you being pissed with me is going to affect your work then I'm going to have to fire you."

Ianto looked at him begrudgingly.

"I've split the remaining files into three groups," Jack continued, shooting Ianto the tiniest of thankful smiles. Ianto remained completely impassive. "Gwen, you take these and interview the patients. Tell them that the hospital has had a system crash and they need to check they still have all the necessary information. Ianto, you do the same with this pile."

"Ok," Gwen picked up her pile and headed for the door.

"Ianto," Jack handed the Welshman his pile. "You can't keep this up forever."

"I don't plan to," Ianto replied frostily taking the files and standing up.

"Oh?" Jack cursed himself for sounding hopeful.

"As soon as we get back to Cardiff I'm going to take three weeks off," he said. "Then I will return to work and everything will continue as before."

Jack looked at him for a moment blinking.

"Will it?" He said, sounding slightly confused.

"Yes, I will live in a flat on the outskirts of the bay and work nine to five," Ianto continued. "Bring you coffee, do your dry cleaning, ignore your sexual comments."

Oh. Ianto meant things would go back to the way they were before the sex started. Jack's heart sank. It also seemed that Ianto would no longer be living in the back room with Jack anymore.

"Right…" Jack nodded. "Of course."

Ianto turned to look at him, unreadable as ever.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said. "Did you think I meant something else?"

Jack wasn't quite sure if there was the tiniest hint of sarcasm in there or not. Ianto was so hard to understand sometimes.

"No," Jack shook his head and picked up the remaining pile of patient folders. "Better get going."

--

It was a long slog, interviewing the patients. Not because they had many (seven each) but because they had to be rigorous in their questioning. Some aliens could be very tricky to spot and some people didn't even know they were aliens.

Jack entered the fourth room of the day and found a girl with wavy blonde hair sat up in bed, looking at him expectantly through bright blue eyes. He glanced down at the file in his hand. Rose Hargreeves. Jack almost smiled. The girl definitely looked like a Rose.

"Hey there," he said, noticing that despite the fact she was only fourteen, the girl had no family with her. Still, he wasn't going to complain. It made his job easier. "My name's Jack Harkness, I'm just doing some routine-"

"The hospital computers haven't crashed," she said, startling Jack. Not only did the comment surprise him, but she wasn't American.

"Oh…" Jack decided he better tread carefully. This girl sounded like she could be the alien. "Well I need to ask a few questions."

"Go ahead," Rose replied smiling slightly.

"How do you know the computers haven't crashed?" Jack asked. It wasn't the first question he was _supposed_ to ask, but it seemed the most natural one.

"I…" the girl looked down for a moment."I just do."

"No, come on, you must have found out somehow," Jack coaxed gently.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me," she said.

"Try me," Jack replied.

--

Gwen was having trouble. The first three patients had been happy enough to answer the questions, but now she'd reached the room of a four year old boy who was having a round of chemo for his leukaemia and the family wanted to know why she was interfering, asking all these questions.

"Where's Doctor Wilson?" The mother asked. "I want to talk to him."

"He's busy at the moment," Gwen lied smoothly. "I just need to ask a few questions because the hospital computers-"

"You don't look like a hospital orderly," the Dad said gruffly.

Gwen reached into her pocket and pulled out the ID card she'd armed herself with before coming to the hospital. She held it out to the worried parents and they glanced at it, not looking at all convinced.

Suddenly the door slid open and a doctor in a white coat walked in shooting Gwen a confused look.

"Doctor Wilson!" The mother seemed relieved to see her son's physician.

"Can I help you?" Wilson asked Gwen, smiling briefly at the patient's mother.

"I just needed to ask some questions, some of the hospital computers were down," she smiled and handed the ID card to Wilson. "Doesn't matter, I can come back later."

"Oh… ok…" Wilson nodded and Gwen hurriedly backed out.

As soon as she was out of the room she sighed with relief. Hopefully she could get round the rest of the patients before that Doctor Wilson realised there was something fishy going on.

--

Ianto meanwhile was dealing with a very immature woman. The minute he had entered the room she had started giggling and fluttering her eyelashes at him. Gritting his teeth he had managed to get through the first few questions, but now the brunette was refusing to cooperate, asking her own questions instead of answering Ianto's.

"So what brings you to New Jersey? That's an odd accent you've got," she smiled at him, fluttering her eyelashes.

"I'm working here as a transfer," Ianto lied quickly. "From Cardiff in the UK. Now, have you ever had any sort of blackouts during stressful situations?"

"You're pretty cute," the woman giggled foolishly and Ianto decided that he'd got enough answers. People like this made him feel uncomfortable at the best of times.

"I think I've got everything I need, thanks," he stood up.

Without warning the woman grabbed him by his tie and pulled him in for a kiss. Pulling away almost instantly, the woman went red and waggled her fingers at him as Ianto practically ran from the room.


	7. New Symptoms

When the Torchwood team were finally all together again in the flat one evening, Jack decided it would be a good idea to go through what they knew. Tosh and Owen, though enjoying solving a few medical mysteries, had not yet come across anything alien.

"It's been in the hospital for some time now," Tosh said, showing them a hologram of the area. There were residual Rift signals all over the place and no way of telling where exactly the alien was stationed. "So I doubt it's going to come to the attention of the diagnostic department. Because of the time span, I think we can also assume that it's not in the A and E department either. The best bet we have is that it's in a long term part of the hospital. Either ICU, Oncology or posing as a human in a coma, though the latter seems unlikely as the alien appears to travel round the whole building frequently. I think it knows that we're trying to track it down and it's trying to make it as hard as possible to pinpoint."

Jack nodded as he listened to everything Tosh was saying. The whole team were gathered round the coffee table and he was watching Ianto out of the corner of his eye, though the young Welshman was still ignoring his boss.

"I also suspect that the alien itself is quite young," Tosh continued. "As far as I can tell, it's just hiding, not trying to kill, not trying to take over the world, just trying to remain unnoticed. It may be posing as an adult human, but I think we should be careful when approaching the alien as it is probably a frightened child with more power than it realises."

"Have you been able to tell what sort of alien we're after?" Jack asked.

"No, the readings are nothing like I've ever seen," Tosh shook her head. "It's emitting low level radiation, not toxic to us, but enough to distinguish it from a human."

"Right, well," Jack glanced between Ianto and Gwen. "What did you two find when we interviewed those patients?"

"Nothing unusual as far as mine were concerned," Gwen replied.

"My Welsh charms seemed to turn a few heads," Ianto added. "But nothing alien."

"Well," Jack said that one word with such emphasis that the team all turned to look at him. "I didn't find an alien, but I did find someone I believe has been influenced by it."

He began recounting his tale of the girl called Rose. She had been brought into the hospital because she'd been having unexplained nosebleeds. The doctors had never found out what caused the bleeding issue, but they did find an inoperable tumour on her brain.

However, the tumour appeared to be more mysterious than previously thought. According to Rose, the tumour had begun to grow a few weeks beforehand and ever since they had found it, she had discovered that she also had psychic powers. That was how she had known Jack was lying about the computer crashes before he'd even said anything.

"She didn't want to tell me at first because she didn't think I'd believe her," Jack finished off.

"Understandable really," Owen nodded. "If you've only got a couple of weeks to live, you're hardly going to want to spend it locked up in some psych ward."

"As opposed to the Oncology ward?" Gwen shot him a look. "It doesn't matter where she is, she's still dying."

"Maybe she's not, though?" Jack suggested. "They haven't done any diagnostic tests since they discovered the cancer, so maybe they were wrong?"

"Uhh, Jack…" Owen looked at him oddly. "They would have done MRI's, checked the blood for missing proteins and cancer markers… they would've noticed if something was amiss."

"If you were an alien hiding in someone's brain, do you really think that you'd make yourself known?" Jack met Owen's gaze, knowing that this would mean more to him than anyone else.

"So you think that the alien has somehow infected this girl's brain with… what?" Tosh asked.

"I dunno," Jack admitted. "But I was hoping you two could run a few more tests… under the radar."

"We can try," Tosh looked doubtful. "But we risk getting chucked out. If House or anyone catches us, that's our golden ticket gone."

"Ok…" Jack rubbed his chin in thought. "We'll keep that as plan B then. But if we don't have any more leads in a week's time, we're going to have to test Rose."

Ianto suddenly lapsed into a coughing fit. The team turned to look at him.

"Ianto are you ok?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine," Ianto assured them. "Just not quite got over the cold."

He looked up at their worried faces.

"Don't panic," he said. "I'm not dying."

They all smiled weakly at the joke.

--

Later that night, Jack was stood in the living room, looking out of the window over the city. He hardly slept back in Cardiff at the Hub, but he couldn't stand trying anywhere else, so he'd spent the last few weeks wide awake.

He heard soft footsteps behind him and, assuming it was Gwen or Tosh fetching a glass of water, turned to make sure they were ok. He almost laughed in surprise when he saw Ianto approaching him looking sheepish. The Welshman's dark brown hair was sticking up at odd angles as if he'd spent the last few hours tossing and turning.

"Couldn't sleep," he confirmed Jack's suspicions.

"Me neither," Jack agreed, looking out of the window again.

Ianto came to a stop beside him, watching the slight orange glow starting on the horizon. The tinge that signalled the morning approaching.

"I came out to apologise for my behaviour over the past few days," Ianto began.

"Ianto it's fine," Jack said quickly.

"No. It's not," Ianto shook his head. "Just because we have things to work through… just because I hate you right now… that's no reason not to do my job."

Jack felt his heart sink. Ianto hated him.

"I'm not saying I forgive you for what you did," Ianto warned. "But I shouldn't have acted the way I did either."

Jack didn't say anything.

"Eventually, I'll get over you, and maybe we'll be ok," Ianto continued. "But for now, I think it's best if we just…"

"Yeah," Jack glanced at him and smiled softly.

"So… we can concentrate on this case now? And you'll stop staring at me all the time?" Ianto smiled ever so slightly.

"Sorry," Jack said. "But I still care about you. And I was just worried."

"I know," Ianto rested his head for a moment against the cool glass of the window, as he leant against the sill. "But I'm fine, honest."

As if to take out what little conviction he had in his point, he began coughing again. Jack quickly went to fetch a glass of water from the kitchen and bought it out to Ianto, who was still spluttering into a tissue when he returned.

"That is one nasty cough," Jack said when Ianto stopped long enough to take a drink.

"It always sounds worst just before it goes," Ianto agreed.

"You should go back to bed and get some rest," Jack said. Ianto looked at him oddly for a moment.

"I think that's the first time you've suggested going to bed and it's not been a euphemism," he said.

"I am capable of being a human being," Jack sighed.

"Really?" Ianto asked. It wasn't a harsh dig, it was a sincere question.

"Yes," Jack nodded. "Now go to bed."

"Yes, sir," Ianto wandered towards the bedroom.

Jack looked back out the window feeling marginally better than he had done half an hour previously. Before he could slip back into his reverie however, another coughing fit made him turn around again.

"Dear me Ianto, you sound-"

He froze. Ianto was on all fours, struggling to breathe. Jack was by his side in an instant looking at him with concern. It wasn't the cough that was worrying him, but that large globules of blood that came with them.


	8. New Patients

Owen was examining Ianto as the Welshman sat groaning in one of the armchairs. Jack had gone to fetch the medic the minute he'd managed to persuade Ianto not to clean up the mess he'd made. Despite the worrying fact that he was coughing up blood, Ianto still found the mess more troublesome.

"Will you sit still!?" Owen complained.

"I'm fine!" Ianto protested.

"Tell that to the three table spoons of blood you've just coughed up," Owen replied.

"You measured?" Ianto shot him a disgusted look.

"It was an estimate," Owen shook his head and straightened up. "Jack we're gonna have to take him to the hospital."

"Why, what's wrong with him?" Jack asked worriedly.

"He's coughing up blood!" Owen rubbed a hand over his face. "Whatever it is, it isn't good and it isn't something I can treat here."

Jack nodded, running a hand through his hair.

"Ok," he said finally. "Might look a bit suspicious if you know us though. I'll check Ianto in separately and if we come to the attention of House, you're just going to have to play dumb."

"Right-e-o," Owen packed up his medical kit. "You take him now. Tosh and I haven't got to be in for a couple of hours so we'll see you later."

Jack went to help Ianto up before the Welshman could protest anymore, but Owen caught his arm and pulled him gently to one side.

"Try not to worry, ok?" Owen said. "As far as I can tell, this isn't anything alien, and as bad as coughing up blood looks, it could be much worse."

"Thanks," Jack said gratefully.

--

When Tosh and Owen did arrive at Princeton later that morning, their hopes that whatever Ianto had wasn't serious were soon shattered.

"Got a new case," House said as they filed into the boardroom and sat around the table. He chucked files at each of them and Owen's heart sank as he read the name 'Ianto Jones'. "Fever, rash, coughing up blood and abdominal pain."

"That's not interesting," Foreman frowned. "There are a hundred different things to explain those symptoms, like, oh I don't know, an infection?"

"White blood cell count was normal," House smiled slightly.

"Could still be an infection, but one the body doesn't recognise?" Cameron suggested.

"That would have to be a pretty uncommon infection," Chase replied doubtfully.

"Since when do we ever deal with any that isn't uncommon?" House looked between them. "Come on you guys! You're missing something big!"

"Well we could draw some blood-"

"Not tests!" House scowled. "What's the first thing we do when we get a new patient?"

"Take a history," Cameron said.

"Exactly," House glanced at Harper and Sato. "And guess where this Ianto Jones just happens to come from?"

Cameron, Foreman and Chase were all frowning at each other confused. House waited a full thirty seconds before he finally gave them the answer.

"Cardiff, UK," he said.

"Cardiff…" Chase glanced at Harper and Sato. "Isn't that where you guys are from?"

"Yeah," Harper nodded quickly. "Must be a coincidence."

"There's no such thing as coincidence," House replied. "Everything happens for a reason and everybody lies."

He headed for the boardroom door and limped out into the hallway. The five members of his team quickly gathered up their files and followed him.

"Where are we going?" Foreman asked.

"To meet the patient!" House replied.

The team glanced at each other. Something was definitely up. House _never_ visited a patient.

As soon as they entered the room, Owen and Tosh knew they were going to have their work cut out. Not only were they going to have to pretend not to know Ianto, they were also going to have to ignore Jack.

"Is everything ok?" Ianto sounded worried, and slightly intimidated by the fact that six doctors burst into his room.

"Oh yeah," House nodded, looking carefully between the patient and Harper and Sato. "My name is Doctor House and this is my diagnostic team. They will be taking any bodily fluids you have to offer and will spend the next however long saving your life."

House paused, his attention suddenly caught by Jack. He had expressly told them all to remain incognito, unnoticed, blend in, so what did their captain do? Arrived in his military coat, with his charming grin plastered over his face.

"Jack Harkness," he held out his hand to House, who shook it hesitantly. Well at least he'd dropped the Captain.

House looked between Jack and Ianto as if sizing them up.

"You are his partner," he said finally.

"Genius," Jack replied, eyeing up Cameron.

"But you're American," House rubbed his chin. "Interesting."

"Is it?" Jack had moved on to Chase now, who looked extremely uncomfortable being watched so intently.

"Right, well, just thought we'd say hi!" House continued. "No doubt this will be the last time you see me."

House turned to his team, ordered they take all the necessary fluids for testing and then pulled Chase to one side.

"I want you to watch these two and find out what you can," he said quietly.

"What? Why?" Chase frowned.

"Just do it ok?" House rolled his eyes.

"Why me?" Chase asked, knowing he wouldn't get a reason for his previous question.

"Because that Jack Harkness has been eyeing you all up since we entered the room," House replied in an undertone. "Now, Foreman holds me in contempt so he won't spy for me, Cameron is sweet but that man will see straight through her if he doesn't bed her first, so that leaves you."

"Why not Harper or Sato?" Chase glanced at them as they drew some blood.

"Because I think they know these two," House left before Chase could ask anymore stupid questions.

"Right…" Chase said going to help the others.

--

"I hate hospitals," Ianto said finally, long after the doctors had disappeared.

"Oh?" Jack had remained with him the entire time. Just because they weren't together didn't mean he couldn't be worried.

"Yeah," Ianto nodded. "Ever since I was kid, I've just… I dunno. I think it's probably to do with…"

"To do with what?" Jack asked as Ianto trailed off.

"Nothing, doesn't matter," Ianto sighed and then coughed again. "I hope they find out what's wrong soon."

"I'm sure they will," Jack resisted the urge to reach out and take Ianto's hand.

"Is Gwen any closer to finding that alien?" Ianto asked after a moment.

"No," Jack shook his head.

After he'd brought Ianto to the hospital, Jack had phoned Gwen and told her to take the ID card for police and take a look round the hospital. He didn't think it would come to anything, but Gwen needed something useful to occupy her time and anything was better than leaving her on her own in the flat.

Ianto coughed again and started scratching. The rash was fairly new. It had only come up an hour after he'd first been admitted and it was already driving him crazy.

"Argh, can't they give me something for this?" He moaned.

"Stop scratching," Jack said pulling Ianto's hands away. "You'll only make it worse."

In truth he didn't think it could look much worse. Large red blotchy patches of itchy sore skin had erupted in various places on Ianto's body.

"Well it can't get much worse," Ianto sighed, examining himself cautiously to check he hadn't drawn blood with his fingernails.


	9. Death In The Hospital

Ianto had been in hospital nearly twenty four hours and they were no closer to a diagnosis. He was still coughing up blood when he wasn't scratching the rash that was slowly taking over his body and Jack hadn't left his bedside.

Despite the arguments they'd had, Ianto was glad of Jack's company. Hospitals freaked him out enough already, without the worry of being a patient. He hadn't been too bothered the first day, after all - he didn't feel too bad. Slightly nauseas and the occasional stomach cramp, but nothing too severe. In fact, Jack looked like he was suffering worse from the worry than Ianto was from his actual illness.

Owen came to check on him mid morning and reassured them that they had a few theories. Ianto didn't like the sound of this. Theories meant that they weren't entirely sure what was wrong and he'd be in hospital for a while longer.

He hadn't told Jack why he hated hospitals so much, though Ianto would be surprised if Jack hadn't worked out that it was linked with his knowledge of Providence Park back in Cardiff.

"Are you sure you can't treat me back in the flat?" Ianto whispered, checking none of the staff where paying attention.

"No, trust me, here is the best place for you," Owen reassured him. "We'll figure this out. Promise."

Ianto sighed and nodded, wincing slightly as he moved. Owen frowned as he noticed the wince, and, after he put the clipboard back at the end of his bed, he stopped beside Ianto.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah… just got stomach ache," Ianto replied.

"Let's take a look," Owen pulled the bed covers out of the way. "I need you to straighten out."

Ianto, who had been curled up, attempted to straighten and found it impossible. He was in pain now; if he tried to stretch it was agony. Owen got him back into a more comfortable position and checked his abdomen carefully with his fingers.

"I'll order you some morphine," he said finally, trying to hide the worried look on his face.

"Is that bad?" Jack asked.

"Stomach pain is never good," Owen admitted. "But if it's getting worse, then it will help us with our diagnosis."

--

The morphine helped for the most part. Ianto was able to lay flat and Owen came to check on him regularly. Tosh appeared once or twice, but she found it harder to pretend she didn't know Jack and Ianto, so most of the time she kept away.

About eight o' clock in the evening on the second day Gwen wandered into Ianto's room. She'd turned up nothing on her police hunt and it seemed that testing Rose was their only option.

"Right… I'll let Owen and Tosh know and see if they can pull some strings," Jack nodded. "You might as well go back to the flat and see if the tracking equipment has been able to pinpoint anything."

"Ok," Gwen disappeared again and just as Jack was about to follow her he heard a small whimper from behind him.

"Don't leave me," Ianto whispered the pain evident in his voice.

Jack was by his side in an instant and Ianto grabbed his hand holding on for dear life, as though it were the only thing still grounding him in reality.

"The morphine's not working," he hissed. "Please don't leave me."

"Let me go and get Owen, maybe he can up the dosage?" Jack suggested.

"No… the last lot he administered didn't work at all," Ianto shook his head. "He can't give me anything stronger."

Jack watched him sadly as Ianto battled with the pain. He was so hot as well, Jack could practically feel the heat radiating off the Welshman. Whatever was wrong with him was getting worse and fast.

--

House limped from one end of his office to the other, thinking. There was something not quite right about the patient's symptoms. He didn't know what it was, but it just didn't add up. The team had all come up with equally convincing idea's that fit completely with the symptoms, but none of them were right.

They must be missing something. Some sort of intervening factor that was preventing them from reaching the diagnosis they needed. He was going to end up seeing the patient again, he just knew it. He could send one of his team, but they'd never ask the right questions.

Sighing House limped out of his office and along the corridor. Before he could get any further however he was stopped by Wilson who had appeared seemingly from nowhere.

"Oh… hey…" Wilson had apparently been in a world of his own.

"Something up?" House asked, frowning slightly.

"Patient just died," Wilson shrugged, knowing it wouldn't interest House. "Got any closer to solving that case?"

"No," House shook his head, looking down for a moment. "There's something missing-"

"There's always something missing," Wilson replied. House shot him a scathing look.

"I know that! Otherwise there wouldn't be a case," he rubbed a hand across his face. "But I've never seen anything like it… or rather I have and that's what's so annoying."

Wilson looked at him, confused.

"Whatever he's got is uncommon, which narrows down the search, but not unheard of," House explained. "But every diagnosis we've come up with fits perfectly for about twenty minutes and then he has another symptom."

"Why don't you book him in for an MRI?" Wilson suggested.

"Well apart from the fact that he had one when he was first admitted, none of the symptoms warrant an MRI," House couldn't believe Wilson could be so stupid.

"Something's obviously changed since you admitted him," Wilson sighed. "What are you scared of? Upsetting Cuddy?"

House sighed too. Damn smart-ass. He was feeling confidant that he'd be able to get the answer out of the patient and now Wilson's depression over another lost patient was wearing off on him.

"It's better than sitting around doing nothing," Wilson wandered off towards his office door.

House watched him go before turning to head off himself. He almost fell over when he found Chase stood in front of him.

"What?" He barked.

"You were right," Chase said.

"Of course I was," House continued walking, knowing that his lackey would follow. "About what?"

"About the patient, his partner, Sato and Harper," Chase glanced around, conspiratorially. "They know each other."

"Then why are they lying?" House frowned, pondering.

"Just one of those things?" House shot Chase a very dirty look. "What? Everybody lies!"

"Everybody has a reason for lying," House left Chase standing in the middle of the hallway. "I have to go and see our patient."

"There's something else though!" Chase called after him.

House rolled his eyes as he stopped and turned to look at Chase. Opening the file in his hands, the Australian wandered towards his boss, wondering how best to deliver the interesting news.

"One of Wilson's cancer patients presented with similar symptoms just before she died," Chase held out the file.

"Fever, rash, abdominal pain," House muttered to himself as he read the chart.

"It could be unconnected but even Wilson thought it was odd," Chase said. "I mean… she had brain cancer. Tumour was on her temporal lobe, no where near anything that might have caused the symptoms."

"Infection picked up in the hospital?" House wondered aloud.

"We should do an autopsy," Chase waited for approval.

"Fine, go," House handed him back the file. "Get the rest of the team with you, including Harper and Sato. I'll be in my office when you're done."


	10. Autopsy

Ianto was struggling to deal with the pain. It was getting progressively worse and, even though he was curled right up, he felt like his stomach was on fire. He wouldn't be able to stand this much longer.

"Jack," Ianto managed to whisper.

"What?" Jack hadn't moved from Ianto's bedside in three days and was still clutching the Welshman's hand.

"I… the reason I know Providence Park is because my brother's there," Ianto coughed. "I need you to look after him, ok?"

"I don't need to," Jack shook his head. "You can."

"Jack, if they don't find out what's wrong with me soon then I'm not going to leave," Ianto squeezed Jack's hand reassuringly. "Promise me you'll take care of him."

"Ianto-"

But before Jack had a chance to protest Ianto started coughing again. The fits were less and less frequent now, but they were worse every time. They usually stopped after a few minutes, but this one seemed to go on for much longer.

Ianto suddenly clutched Jack's hand tighter and the Captain realised that Ianto couldn't breathe. Trying not to panic Jack carefully prised himself away from Ianto and ran to the door.

"Hey! I need help in here!" He called to the nearest nurse.

--

When Owen and Tosh were first informed of the autopsy they didn't think much of it. After all it meant they were going to be one step closer to diagnosing Ianto. When they heard the name of the girl they were going to be cutting open however, they started to get a little worried.

"Rose Hargreeves," Owen said as he burst into Ianto's room.

"What?" Jack asked looking up.

Ianto didn't say anything. Well he couldn't. Not with a tube down his throat to keep him breathing.

"Oh god… Ianto…" Owen paused. "I didn't know they'd had to intubate."

"Owen, what about Rose?" Jack asked again.

Owen tore his eyes away from his helpless friend lying in the hospital bed to his Captain who was waiting for him to answer the question.

"She died…" Owen said finally. "But just before she died, she had similar symptoms to Ianto's. We're going to do an autopsy and that should give us a definitive diagnosis."

"Should?" Jack looked at him doubtfully.

"Well, there's no guarantee she had the same thing Ianto does," Owen continued. "As far as we can tell, you're the only thing connecting them."

Jack nodded and looked back at Ianto. Anything was better than sitting around doing nothing. He glanced back at Owen.

"Thanks," he said. "Will you let us know, either way?"

"Yeah," Owen smiled slightly, but it didn't reach his eyes.

Once he'd left, Jack turned his attention back to Ianto. He wished so desperately he could fix this. Of all the people to fall ill, why Ianto? It wasn't even like he was one of the more dangerous workers. Gwen, Owen and Tosh all exposed themselves to life risking situations more than him.

A tear slid down Ianto's cheek. He was probably going to die. That much he could just about cope with. But in a hospital in a foreign country, with the partner who'd just dumped him, from something that no one had a clue about was all too much for him.

"Don't cry," Jack whispered hoarsely. "Please."

Ianto closed his eyes for a moment. Because of the tube, the nurses had provided him with a small whiteboard and permanent marker as a means of communication but so far he had chosen not to use it. Now he picked it up and wrote something, finding it difficult to work around the heart monitor connected to his finger.

_I'm sorry._

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Jack assured him.

Ianto didn't write anything more. He _would_ have something to be sorry for soon. Jack didn't know what he was about to do.

--

All five member of House's team were present for the autopsy. Owen and Tosh managed to work it so that they were the ones looking at the tumour in Rose's brain. Tosh suspected that this was what was causing her 'psychic' powers and thought it best that they looked at it first to prevent any of the others reporting back to House and blowing their cover.

Unfortunately the tumours were no longer just inside her brain. They were everywhere. Lungs, liver, kidney's; they dug out seven in total. But they weren't any old tumours as Tosh found out when she tested one.

"Something up?" Cameron asked when she heard Sato's sharp intake of breath.

"Uhh, no… I just remembered something," she smiled and shook her head.

As soon as Cameron went back to the autopsy table to help the others stitch Rose back up, Tosh grabbed Owen and dragged him over to one side.

"They're not tumours," she whispered. "They're eggs."

"What?" Owen frowned. "They're bloody big eggs-"

"Alien eggs," Tosh said more seriously.

"Shit."

--

House was in his office when his team marched in, all bristling with news. He pulled out his Vicodin bottle and popped a pill before following them into the boardroom.

"Ok, give me the good news," he said.

"Rose Hargreeves had egg clusters growing on various organs where the cancerous tumours were supposed to be," Foreman said. "Including the ones in her brain."

House stared at them dumbfounded.

"You're joking right?" He said looking towards Cameron, knowing she'd be the first to crack if it were some kind of prank.

"No," Cameron shook her head. "We biopsied the masses. They're full of eggs."

House frowned and turned his attention to Sato and Harper. There was something that the two transfers weren't telling him.

"Ok, Ducklings... get consent from our patient," House said.

"For what?" Chase asked dumbly.

"Exploratory surgery," House replied. "We need to check if he's got any tumours like this."

"Why don't we do an MRI?" Foreman frowned.

"Because… Cancer Chick had every scan in the book and all the tumours looked like they were tumours," House rolled his eyes. "Even if we know he's got tumours we have no way of testing them unless we do this surgery. Once we know that he's full of eggs, we'll do an MRI to locate all of the sacks and chop them out. Or find a way to destroy them. Or something."

House carefully turned away so the team couldn't see him clutching his leg in pain. The ducklings glanced at each other confused for a moment.

"Why don't we do the MRI first?" Cameron asked. "Then it wouldn't be exploratory surgery…"

"Yes, fine, go," House snapped quickly.

Owen and Tosh glanced at each other. There was no way that Earth medical knowledge was going to be enough. They made their excuses and let Foreman, Chase and Cameron go ahead to schedule the MRI.

"Doctor House," Tosh began. House looked at her. "There's something we need to tell you."


	11. Need To Know

By the evening of Ianto's fourth day in hospital he'd had the MRI, they had identified where all the egg sacks were, and had even taken him into surgery to try and remove some of them.

He was still asleep, but the doctors had assured Jack that the 'tumours' they had removed from Ianto's gut would help with the pain. They also seemed confident that now they had a piece of what was killing him, they would be able to reach a final diagnosis and save Ianto. They didn't mention that there was a chance the egg sack in his brain could cause irreparable damage before they found the cure.

Jack really hoped they found a cure soon. He hated seeing Ianto like this. He was still on the respirator, and now he had a huge white dressing covering what would no doubt be a rather nasty scar. The rash seemed to have subsided slightly, but the fever was still present.

Tosh and Owen had informed Jack as to what they had had to reveal to House. The maverick doctor had apparently taken it all in his stride and had known all along that something was amiss. Now that he was in the know, it made the whole process a bit easier.

Tosh had also taken part of one of the egg clusters back to the flat and helped Gwen incorporate it into the tracking system. The synchronisation would take a while, but once it was completed, Gwen would have a hand held device capable of tracking down the alien within the hospital. After her experience with the Nostrovite, Gwen wasn't sure whether finding the mother would be a good idea, but, as Tosh pointed out, if they found the mother, they might find a cure.

Jack knew that he ought to try and help the team, but he just couldn't leave Ianto's bedside. He had the feeling that he might have-

"Ianto!" Jack smiled weakly as he realised that Ianto had woken up. "They removed some of the tumours. How's the pain?"

_Better. Have they found a way to destroy them all?_

"They're working on it," Jack promised. "And Tosh has set up a scanning programme, so we should be able to find the Mummy too."

Ianto nodded, not looking too hopeful.

--

"She wasn't a cancer patient."

Wilson almost jumped out of his seat when House spoke from the balcony doorway. Wilson looked up and glared at House.

"I know, I did get the autopsy notes," he said.

"So are you going to stop blaming yourself or whatever it is you're doing?" House asked.

"I'm not doing anything," Wilson looked back at the files he was marking.

"Yes you are," House said a little more softly, sitting down the opposite side of the desk to Wilson.

"I'm not," Wilson growled, glaring at House.

"Yes. You are," House twirled his cane in his hands again. "It wasn't your fault."

"I know," Wilson threw down the pen he was holding and rubbed his hands over his face. "I know."

"On the other hand," House began. "My patient is still dying."

"No closer to finding out what from then?" Wilson asked.

"Not really," House admitted. "Although…"

--

Owen came to check on Ianto during the night and forced Jack to leave to go and get some coffee and something to eat. It was all well and good not bothering to hide the fact that they knew each other and that Ianto's brain was slowly being crushed by an alien egg cluster, but if Jack died and then came back to life, the hospital might have something to say about it. Once Jack was out of the room Owen turned to Ianto.

"How are you?" He asked. "Any blurred vision, or difficulty hearing?"

Ianto shook his head. _Not yet,_ he thought. It was only a matter of time before his brain ruptured under the pressure of the tumour growing inside his skull.

"Let us know if anything changes," Owen said. "As far as we can tell, the egg clusters won't grow back if we cut them out, so if worst comes to worst and we haven't got some sort of medicinal cure, we're going to opt for surgery."

Ianto had the feeling there was a rather large 'but' on the end of that sentence. After all, if they could simply cut out all the growths, why hadn't they done that sooner?

"But," Ianto would've laughed if he didn't have a tube blocking his throat. "The tumour in your brain could be difficult to remove. There is a chance that it could leave you brain damaged, so we want to leave it as long as possible before we charge in, guns blazing."

_Surely the longer you leave it, the more chance of brain damage there is?_

"In most cases that is true," Owen sat on the end of the bed, watching Ianto carefully. "But it appears that the eggs in your brain aren't growing. It seems that any pressure on the sack could cause damage to the eggs. So at the moment, it's sort of working with your brain."

Ianto rolled his eyes. Yes, the rash, the fever, the respirator; the eggs were doing him a favour, not slowly killing him.

"I know it doesn't seem good," Owen admitted. "But I promise you we are taking the safest possible route."

Ianto nodded and Owen stood up as if to leave, but Ianto quickly tapped the white board he'd been writing on. He had to let Owen know now, before things got any worse. Owen frowned and wandered back towards Ianto to read what he had written.

_I want you to be my medical proxy._

--

After informing Wilson of what exactly had killed his patient, House had dragged his friend down to Cuddy's office in an attempt to reason with the Dean.

"There is an outbreak in the hospital," House began. "Of a disease which is as yet unknown, but ends in death."

"And you want access to every patient in the hospital to find out if it's spread?" Cuddy asked, second guessing the reason House was here.

"That is indeed why myself and Wilson are here," House nodded.

"And how many people do you know of so far that have this unknown illness?" Cuddy rested her chin on one hand.

"Seven?" House tried.

"Two," Wilson said, knowing Cuddy would never buy House's story.

"Wow, two," Cuddy shook her head. "No."

"But Mom!" House whined. "If this spreads then people are going to die. If I can get them all contained now, I can slow down the disease long enough to come up with a cure and save them all, thus over reaching my one patient a week quota."

Cuddy sighed.

"You are not going round this hospital looking for people who might be dying of this unknown disease just to feed your addiction to strange cases," she said.

"I already have four more patients showing similar symptoms," Wilson stepped forward. "I haven't been able to confirm anything, but if House is right, it will give them a few more years."

"You did not just play the dying patient card!" House said in mock disbelief. He looked back at Cuddy expectantly.

"Fine," she agreed finally.

"Yes," House limped towards the door, Wilson following him.

"But if I receive any complaints I will gladly point out where your office is so the patient's family members can punch you in person!"


	12. Drastic Measures

House quarantined all the patients showing that same symptoms as the first one. A few turned out to have something else, and one was simply suffering from a Conversion Disorder known as Mass Hysteria. So in the end, ironically enough, House had seven including the original patient.

Ianto was now experiencing abdominal pain again and after a quick scan it was revealed that the egg clusters had grown back. Surgery was now out of the question. If they didn't come up with a cure soon then… well… House didn't know what would happen. All he knew was that the patient would die.

House was doing everything in his power to prevent that. He, Cameron and Wilson were in the lab, analysing the egg sacks they had cut from Cancer Chick to see if there was any clue as to what might destroy them. Chase and Foreman were administering morphine to help with the pain to various patients and marking on the white board exactly how far down Death Valley they were. Sato and Harper on the other hand had disappeared. According to them, they were checking to see if they had any specialist equipment to eradicate the tumours.

"Owen, no," Tosh said firmly crossing her arms.

"Why not?" Owen asked annoyed. "Rhys managed to save Gwen-"

"No way," Gwen shook her head. "My job put me in the line of fire. Those people at the hospital have no choice. There is no way you're risking their lives on a maybe."

"Look, I saved Martha with it!" Owen protested. "Just let me try the Singularity Scalpel on one patient."

"No!" Both girls said in unison.

"Fine, we'll have it as a back up plan," Owen replied defeated.

"We won't need a back up plan!" Gwen assured him. "We'll find some way to stop it."

"Any luck tracking the mother?" Owen asked changing the subject. He didn't like to think about what would happen if they couldn't save Ianto.

"The machine's still synchronising," Gwen sighed. "Considering we've got all this high tech kit it doesn't half take a long time to set up."

"The price of the technological age," Tosh agreed. "Still, it shouldn't take too much longer."

"Let's hope not," Owen replied.

-- --

"He's started seizing," Chase said as he, Cameron and Foreman entered House's office.

House was juggling with his ball and two bottles of Vicodin again as the team approached him. After an unsuccessful morning in the lab he had retreated to his office to think. He didn't bother to look at them as he spoke.

"The tumour in his brain is growing," he said. "Bad news for…"

"Ianto," Cameron supplied.

"I knew it was something Welsh," House shrugged. "Are we any closer to a cure?"

"No," Foreman shook his head. "And if the abdominal pain gets much worse he's not going to live long enough to receive a cure. I think we should do the surgery."

"What about Harper and Sato?" House asked. "Have they got back yet?"

"They left the hospital?" Cameron sounded appalled.

"They've got some specialist equipment," House half lied. He wasn't sure that his team would swallow the whole 'alien egg' explanation. He wasn't entirely convinced that he believed it himself, but then, he hadn't seen anything like this before so anything was possible. "I told them to go and check through their stuff in case they've got anything that could help us."

"We haven't got time," Foreman stepped forward and grabbed House's ball before he could catch it again. "We need to do the surgery or he is going to die."

House pocketed the Vicodin bottles and sighed, rubbing his brow with one hand. His leg was killing him again but he'd already take four pills and he didn't want to take anymore for Wilson's sake. Not that he'd admit that to anyone.

"Put him in a chemically induced coma," he said finally. "It'll buy us a few more hours."

"House, we're not going to find a cure in time," Foreman shouted. "You want to keep him alive and in excruciating pain just so-"

"Look! I know that you have had a first hand experience to the pain, but if we keep him alive a bit longer he could save the others!" House stormed past Foreman and between Cameron and Chase, who watched him go, slightly bewildered.

"Where are you going?" Chase called after him.

"To talk to our patient!" House shot over his shoulder as he disappeared down the corridor.

--

House opened the door slowly and wandered into his patient's room. Ianto he reminded himself mentally. Always good to remember a patients name if you want them to do what you ask.

"Doctor House," he said glancing at Jack. "We met once before."

"Yeah," Jack nodded. "Have you found a cure?"

House glanced down at his cane before looking at Ianto. He had to play this carefully in order to get Ianto to agree. He also had the feeling that Jack Harkness might pack a punch so he better not get annoyed and start insulting them.

"No," House replied. "And at the rate Ianto's deteriorating he's not going to last much longer without it."

Jack's grip on Ianto's hand tightened. Ianto carefully pulled his hand away long enough to scrawl something on the small white board.

_So what now?_

"I want to put you into a chemically induced coma," House continued. "It'll stop you from dying from the pain and give us more time to come up with a cure."

"What are the chances of him coming back out of this coma?" Jack asked.

"About-"

"Slim," Foreman interrupted knowing House was going to lie. "If we put him into a coma there's only a slim chance of us finding a cure. If we put him under, he's probably not going to come out again."

"Oh…" Jack glanced at Ianto. This didn't sound good. How had things got to this stage? All Ianto had started with was a cold.

"If we don't put you in a coma then you'll die in agony," House said, ignoring everyone but Ianto. "It's your call."

Ianto looked between Jack, House and Foreman. Die quickly, but in agony, or be pain free and die in a few hours time. That was definitely what they called a Hobson's choice.

_Do it._

House nodded and prepared to administer the shot.

--

Back at the flat Owen got a call on his mobile. Answering it his expression immediately turned from grim to hopeless. Gwen and Tosh watched anxiously as they waited to know what had happened.

"Has something happened?" Tosh asked when Owen hung up.

Owen didn't answer for a moment, staring at the floor, deep in thought. Gwen shifted uncomfortably and stepped closer, laying a hand on Owen's arm.

"Owen?" She swallowed hard. "Has something happened to Ianto?"

"The pain's worse," Owen croaked finally. "They've had to put him into a chemically induced coma. If we don't find a cure soon, he's not coming out of it."

Gwen put a hand to her mouth and had to choke back a sob. Owen finally looked up and met Tosh's gaze. Before anyone could say anything however, the machine in the far corner made a soft beeping noise to signal that the syncing process was complete.


	13. Bleak Outlook

As soon as they received the phone call, Owen, Tosh and Gwen all went back to the hospital. Gwen, now armed with the tracking device and her gun, went after the mother alien. Jack had given her orders to try and reason with said alien, but if necessary she was allowed to shoot on sight.

"Third floor," Gwen wandered through the reception area towards the stairs, taking them two at a time.

She was getting funny looks as she walked down the corridor on the third floor. The device in her hand was silent, but odd looking, though Tosh had done her best to disguise it as a PDA.

The signal was getting stronger and Gwen quickened her pace. She stopped suddenly when she reached the right room and pushed back the sliding door, stepping inside.

"Hi," the woman in the bed smiled as Gwen walked in.

Gwen was slightly taken aback by the smile. There was something so human about the brunette. Something that Gwen couldn't believe would hide an alien.

"Hey, I've just come to ask you a few questions," Gwen said glancing down at the tracker in her hands. It was definitely her.

"You sound like that cute guy who was in here the other day," the woman was still smiling, but there was something slightly malicious about it now. "He tasted nice."

"What did you do to him?" Gwen asked, one hand surreptitiously reaching for her gun.

"Just kissed him," the woman shrugged. "Of course in kissing him I implanted eggs into his body."

"Then get them out," Gwen said in a dangerous voice. "Now."

"I can't," the woman replied. "It's not a reversible process."

"What do you want?" Gwen frowned. "I mean, why implant the eggs inside a body?"

"The children are always so hungry when they hatch," the woman suddenly moved forward in the bed, taking Gwen by surprise, who pulled out her gun and trained it on the alien.

"One more move and I'll shoot," Gwen warned.

"Humans," the woman scoffed. "No fun at all. It doesn't matter now anyway. If any of the eggs hatch they'll breed and spread over the entire planet and you have no way of stopping them."

The laugh that escaped her lips was the aliens last. Gwen didn't hesitate in pulling the trigger of her gun. _Now I've just got to make sure no one remembers she was here,_ Gwen thought as she glanced through the glass wall.

--

In the boardroom House had called a meeting. All five members of his team were sat round the table looking worse for wear. Apparently they were still no closer to finding a cure.

"Our only option is surgery," Foreman said again. "If we remove the tumours it gives us another few hours to come up with a cure."

"And probably leaves him unable to wipe his own ass or keep his drool in his mouth," House shot back. "Surgery is a last resort. The tumours will grow back. Or he could bleed out during the procedure."

"We have no other choice!" Chase agreed. House looked up. His team must be desperate; Chase and Foreman _never_ agreed.

"Well tough," House limped from one end of the room to the other. "I'm your boss and I said no."

"Actually you can't," Harper piped up suddenly, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. "We're going to do the surgery."

"In case you've forgotten I'm in-"

"Ianto made me his medical proxy," Harper held the paper out to House.

House scanned it quickly before throwing it back down on the table. He pulled out his Vicodin bottle and, with shaking hands, popped three pills into his mouth, swallowing hard.

"Fine, but you're making a mistake," he said.

No one said anything as they all stood up intending to go and tell Jack what was about to happen to his ex. Somehow Owen had the feeling that convincing Jack was going to be just as difficult.

--

"No," Jack shook his head firmly. "Not if there's a chance of brain damage."

"There's also a chance that he could die in the next ten minutes," Owen replied hotly. "We've got no other option Jack. We're doing the surgery."

"But… you need consent forms don't you?" Jack said. "I just won't sign them. You can't touch him."

"We need consent forms from his medical proxy," Owen sighed. "That's usually a next of kin, or partner. But you can change who your medical proxy is. Ianto asked me to be his."

"What?" Jack looked distraught.

"It's not that he doesn't trust you," Owen assured him. "But I'm a doctor as well as a friend. What I choose to do he knew would be best all round."

"So that's it," Jack sat back in defeat. "I don't get a say."

"Look, you dumped him," Owen shrugged. "Even if I wasn't the proxy we could simply get a court order saying that we were better to judge what should happen to him than you are."

"Great, thanks," Jack blinked hard. He would not cry. Not now. "That makes me feel so much better."

"Trust me Jack," Owen put a hand on his shoulder. "I will do my best to save him, ok?"

Jack nodded. He knew Owen would do everything in his power to save Ianto's life. But as each hour passed, Jack started to doubt more and more that Ianto could be saved.

--

Once his team had dispersed to rid the Welshman of his tumours, House had wandered out into the corridor and round to Wilson's office, knocking on the door lightly before opening it. Wilson looked up at House questioningly.

"Come on," he said. "We're going down to the morgue."

"What? Why?" Wilson frowned.

"We're going to test those tumours," House replied. "My team are wasting their time cutting them out of my patient, so we might as well make ourselves useful and try and find a cure."

Wilson nodded and grabbed his lab coat as he stood up and followed House. As they walked Wilson noticed that House was limping badly. Well he always limped, but it seemed worse now than ever.

"Are you ok?" He asked House gently.

"I'm fine," House said. "My patient on the other hand is slowly dying."

"House," Wilson watched him carefully. "I'm serious."

"So am I," House agreed. "I don't think this guy's partner is going to be too thrilled if his boyfriend dies."

"House!" Wilson caught his friend's arm and forced him to stop. "Are you ok?"

"No," House admitted. "I'm in excruciating pain. However, saving this guy's life is keeping my mind off it, so can we just…"

He gestured down the corridor and Wilson finally relented. He hated the thought of his friend being in so much pain. Especially as it was getting worse.


	14. United Front

House and Wilson spent hours down in the lab examining the tumours. They were like nothing they'd ever seen before; they couldn't even identify similar proteins or markers.

"There must be something," House muttered to himself, as yet _another_ test came back negative on the computer he was looking at. "There's _always_ something."

"House… even if we find something, we're not going to find it in time," Wilson said, rubbing his face tiredly.

"It doesn't matter," House said. "We're not working by my patient's time scale, there's six others who need saving. We've got to keep going."

"We could be doing something much more productive like removing the tumours before they get too big," Wilson pointed out.

"Then go!" House snapped. "If you don't want to be here, then shove off."

Wilson opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it quickly. He stood up and headed towards the door, pausing next to House to say something before he left.

"I know you're in pain and you're annoyed that you're going to lose your patient to something you can't cure," he said softly. "But that's no reason to take it out on me."

--

Ianto flat-lined four times during the surgery; even if removing the tumours hadn't left him brain damaged, the lack of oxygen when he went into cardiac arrest probably had. They discovered after a quick scan that the reason for Ianto's heart deciding to up and die on them was the large egg cluster crushing it. So they removed that one too whilst they were there.

As they wheeled him back to his room, Owen only hoped that they could find a cure for Ianto before it was too late.

Jack was waiting for Ianto when they bought him back. Jack frowned slightly when he saw the row of small black stitches going down Ianto's chest.

"I thought you were just doing brain surgery?" Jack asked.

"We were," Owen agreed. "But the strain on Ianto's heart was too much, so we had to remove that egg sack as well."

"No luck finding a cure then?" Jack didn't sound hopeful.

"Not yet, no," Owen shook his head.

Jack looked back at Ianto and gently wrapped his fingers round the Welshman's hand. _I can't lose you Ianto…_

--

Gwen had managed to rope Tosh into helping her get the alien into a body bag. They still needed to do some tests on it, so when they had the chance they'd sneak it out to their flat.

"Any luck finding a cure?" Gwen asked Tosh.

"No," Tosh shook her head. "Nothing. They've taken Ianto into surgery to try and get rid of some of the tumours, but at the moment we're basically watching him die."

"Cheery thought," Gwen said. "Thanks for that."

"Sorry," Tosh ran a hand through her hair. "I just wish there was something more we could do!"

"I know, me too," Gwen agreed. "There's got to be something though. There's always something."

--

Wilson returned to the lab a few hours later with coffee and donuts. House glanced up as his friend entered and shot him an apologetic look.

"Sorry about snapping earlier," he said, taking a cup from Wilson and taking a long drink.

"Doesn't matter," Wilson shrugged. "It's what you do. Any luck with finding a cure?"

"No," House shook his head sighing. "There's nothing! I just don't understand it!"

House banged a fist onto the counter top, rubbing it gingerly with the other hand afterwards. Wilson watched House for a moment sadly. This wasn't a case of solving the puzzle anymore. It was about saving someone's life. The patient was more than just a challenge now.

"Maybe you should stick those eggs in a jar and call it a night?" Wilson suggested.

"Yeah… maybe…" House said reluctantly. He had never before admitted defeat on a case. He stood up and carefully took the egg sack he'd been testing over to another counter, opening a jar to preserve it.

Wilson picked up his coffee and donut and turned to leave just as he heard House gasp. Frowning slightly he turned back to look at him.

"What?" He asked.

"It just…" House pointed at the empty jar. "It just disintegrated! Formaldehyde Jimmy! That's how we cure it!"

"Wait, what?" Wilson wandered towards him looking at the jar.

"The formaldehyde destroyed it!" House said sounding more like his old self. "If we pump it throughout all the patients systems they'll be fine!"

"Whoa, you can't give them formaldehyde," Wilson said. "They'll suffer from rashes, sever pain, vomiting-"

"Exactly what they're suffering from now," House interrupted. "But at least we can eliminate death from the equation."

Wilson nodded.

"Need help convincing Cuddy?" He asked.

"Nope," House smiled slightly. "I've got just the men to help me."

--

Cuddy looked up startled as House entered with his entire team behind him. This was obviously serious if the head of diagnostics needed his whole team with him. Serious or he was hoping to intimidate her into a completely insane treatment.

"I need to give our patients a flush of formaldehyde," House said.

Definitely serious then if House wasn't going to make a witty remark. On the other hand, when Cuddy finally registered what he'd said, it was a completely insane idea.

"And why-"

"I just tried to preserve one of those tumours in our jars and it disintegrated," House cut in. "Formaldehyde could save their lives."

Cuddy looked from House to the rest of his team. They all stared back at her, for once completely in agreement with each other. She found it slightly daunting. There was no shouting, no arguing, no completely irrational glib remarks from House… Cuddy watched him carefully for a moment and noticed he was leaning heavily on his left leg.

"Are you in pain?" She asked.

"Don't make this about me!" House growled. "My patients are dying!"

"Cuddy, listen," Harper stepped forward. "The formaldehyde treatment isn't going to make them any worse than they are now, but it _will_ eliminate death."

"If you don't trust House's judgement, trust ours," Sato agreed, standing next to Harper.

"They're right," Foreman said joining them. Cameron and Chase followed suit.

Cuddy looked at them all again. A united front; that made a change to the norm. She considered for a long moment before nodding.

"Ok," she said. "Do what you have to."


	15. Recovery

Six of the patients recovered within a few hours of receiving the treatment and were all sent back to various rooms, out of isolation. One patient however, still wasn't out of the woods. _Just bloody typical,_ Jack thought miserably as he rubbed his thumb over Ianto's hand gently, wishing the Welshman would wake up.

He didn't care if Ianto still hated him, as long as he was alive; that was all that mattered. Hell, Jack would happily die himself to ensure that Ianto lived.

Owen wandered in every few hours to check on Ianto's condition. Not long after the formaldehyde treatment had been issued, they stopped the drugs to keep Ianto in a coma. Jack had been warned that Ianto would still be in pain, but it would be tolerable. A bad stomach cramp at most.

Owen had also explained to Jack, at length, that there was almost a sixty percent chance that Ianto would be brain damaged. Oxygen deprivation combined with the brain surgery had increased the risks considerably.

Jack didn't seem to be paying much attention though. He was fixated with praying for Ianto to wake up. It didn't seem to hit home that the person waking up might not actually be Ianto.

--

House sat in his office tossing his ball from one hand to the other thinking. It was the first chance in days that he'd been able to think about nothing in particular; to just let his mind wander. His team were off making sure the patients were recovering and he had the satisfied feeling of another job well done resting comfortably on his shoulders.

Of course there was still the matter of pain. If it got much worse he'd have to do something about it. A shot of morphine sounded particularly enticing.

With that thought, he put down his ball and stood up, opening the balcony door, crossing the dividing wall and entering Wilson's office on the other side. Wilson looked up as House entered and very carefully positioned himself on the sofa.

"Patients recovering?" Wilson asked lightly.

"Yup," House nodded. "I have to say I am bloody brilliant at what I do."

"It was fluke," Wilson smiled slightly. "Besides, I should be getting all the glory. I was the one that suggested you put the egg in the jar."

"This is true," House nodded. "So I was thinking, you need a place to live-"

"I've got a hotel room," Wilson frowned slightly.

"You need a place to live," House continued unperturbed. "So why don't you come and live with me again?"

"House, I don't think-"

"Please."

The word sounded strange coming from House. It wasn't even just a request; House was actually begging. Wilson stared at him for a moment, wondering what House's ulterior motive was.

"I just thought," House noted the look of suspicion and decided to explain. "That you'd be much more comfortable living with me and…"

"And?" Wilson pressed gently.

"I think Cuddy would prefer it if she knew someone was keeping tabs on me twenty four seven," House shrugged.

"You mean, the pain's getting worse and though one upside of having me live with you would be that Cuddy would trust you weren't doing anything stupid, but ultimately you just want me there so that when things get bad I can help you through the worst part," Wilson replied.

House looked at him, and, for a moment, Wilson thought he was going to deny everything, maybe even take back the offer of somewhere to live.

"Yeah," he nodded. "That about sums it up."

Wilson considered for a moment. He didn't want to sound too eager, otherwise House would think that he was doing the Oncologist a favour and then Wilson would be in his debt and end up breaking into the next patient's apartment or something equally illegal.

"Ok," Wilson said finally. "When do you want me to move in?"

"Whenever," House put his hands behind his head. "Though, there's an L word marathon on tonight if you fancied watching it?"

Wilson didn't say anything to that, just smiled.

--

Gwen and Tosh moved the body bag back to their flat once they knew all the patients had been given their treatments. There wasn't much either of them could do at the hospital anymore, so they decided their time was better spent doing various scans and tests on the alien body.

"Has Ianto woken up yet?" Gwen asked Tosh as they reached the flat again.

"No," Tosh shook her head. "He's showing signs of improvement though."

Gwen frowned slightly as she dropped her end of the bag in the middle of the floor.

"You don't sound too pleased," she noted.

"No… well…" Tosh put down her end as well, and ran a hand shakily through her hair. "Owen thinks that Jack is heading for a crash. He's pinned his hopes high that Ianto is going to be fine and…"

"He will be won't he?" Gwen said worriedly.

"Well… he'll recover," Tosh agreed. "But the thing is, he's most likely got brain damage and we're just not sure how much of Ianto is going to recover, if you see what I mean."

"How bad could it be?" Gwen sat down in a chair, Tosh standing opposite, too agitated to sit.

"Well… he could be perfectly fine," Tosh started pacing. "But chances are, he'll have lost most of the memories leading up to his coma and he could well have forgotten other things as well. Most of it will probably be experiential, like… forgetting the last Weevil hunting expedition, but he could also lose the ability to talk, write…"

Gwen looked down for a moment. None of this sounded good, but on the other hand, it sounded like Jack was going to come out worse.

"So why does Owen think that Jack's-"

"Because Jack thinks he's getting back the same man that went into the coma," Tosh sighed. "I don't know what he's going to do when Ianto finally does wake up. If Ianto doesn't remember _them_…"

Tosh put emphasis on the word and Gwen understood her meaning. But maybe it didn't matter. Maybe forgetting Jack would be a good thing.

"Jack did split up with him though," Gwen pointed out.

"A decision he's regretting," Tosh replied. "Jack hasn't left Ianto's bedside once in all the time he's been in hospital. I think… I think Jack might care for Ianto a lot more than he wants anyone to know."

Gwen sighed and thought about the husband she'd left in Cardiff whilst they dealt with this alien. Rhys was patient and understanding and she loved him so much for it. She didn't know what she'd do if she were in Jack's situation.

--

Doctor Chase was doing the round this time, checking Ianto's vitals and marking things down on the chart at the end of the bed. He gave Jack a reassuring smile as he headed out again. Jack hated that smile. He knew it so well. The one that tried to keep the hope going until they had confirmation it was in vain.

It was the same smile he'd used on his mother in the first few years of searching for his little brother. He'd wanted her to believe that there was still a chance. False hope was better than none at all. But if you knew it was false hope then each smile was like another knife in the heart, twisting and pushing in all the most painful places.

Jack just wanted this all to be over. He wanted to know either way what was going to happen. Once he _knew,_ then - and only then - would he be able to deal with the situation, but whilst all events were just possibilities, Jack could only sit and cling to his false hope.

He glanced down at Ianto's hand clasped between his own. The worst part was knowing what happened after; that there was nothing but darkness. He couldn't bear to think that Ianto was going there.

Maybe he didn't have to though? Jack's heart suddenly picked up pace as he felt Ianto's fingers move. Had he just imagined that or-?

"Ianto?" Jack glanced up and saw the beautiful blue eyes he thought he'd never gaze upon again.


	16. Almost Happy Endings

House limped down the corridor towards his office. He'd just received a page. Well, five to be exact; one from each member of his team. Apparently their patient had woken up. Then he'd received one from Wilson telling him to get his ass back up to his office. Well, it hadn't exactly said that, but House suspected that that was what the Oncologist had wanted to say.

"This had better be good," House said as he pushed open his office door to find Wilson sat in _his_ chair behind _his_ desk.

"I heard you visited your patient," Wilson began.

House groaned inwardly.

"Who blabbed?" He asked. "Because next time I see them they won't just be fired, they'll also find themselves with this shoved in a place canes just aren't meant to go."

He waved his cane threateningly and sat down on the opposite side of the desk to Wilson. It was slightly odd to be sat this way, but House was starting to get used to letting Wilson take control.

"All of them," Wilson replied. "Even the transfers."

"Damn," House couldn't fire them then. Not unless he wanted a whole new team. "Well?"

"Well what?" Wilson just looked at him teasingly.

"Why did you make me walk all the way up here?" House asked. "Because if it was just for that then frankly I think you could've walked down to me."

"No," Wilson shook his head. "I also wanted to know if you pizza or Chinese later?"

"No you didn't," House frowned at him slightly. "Why did you bring me up here James?"

Wilson looked down at his hands for a moment, then back at House, as if thinking carefully about what he was going to say.

"I-"

The door was suddenly pushed open and Chase wandered in. He glanced between House and Wilson wondering for a moment what they were talking about that made them look so serious.

"What?" House snapped impatiently.

"They've just removed the tube from Ianto's throat," Chase shrugged. "He's improved enough to breathe on his own."

"And?"

"And what?" Chase looked at him confused.

"Surely you didn't come all the way up here just to tell me that?" House rolled his eyes.

"Just thought you should know," Chase headed back out. House shook his head, sighing at the idiocy of some of his team members. He turned back to Wilson.

"So," he began "You were saying?"

"Doesn't matter," Wilson stood up quickly. "I was thinking pizza later, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," House watched as Wilson practically ran from the room. He frowned slightly. What on earth was that all about?

--

Ianto had been awake for three hours. Well, drifting anyway. One of the doctor's had warned Jack that though Ianto had been in a coma he would still be tired and they would have to monitor his condition for a while longer.

After the first hour he'd started coughing again which had freaked Jack out, until Owen explained that it was simply because Ianto was now breathing on his own and therefore choking on the tube.

After removing it, Owen left Jack alone with Ianto. Jack had been muttering to him for ages, about everything and anything. All that had happened whilst Ianto had been in the coma, that they had found the alien and dealt with it, how he felt… well; he didn't know how he felt really so he decided to skim over that area.

But Ianto hadn't said a word. Not even so much as a groan. It didn't worry Jack too much. The doctor's had said that he might be a bit fuzzy for a few hours. Jack didn't really care, as long as Ianto was ok, he could live with the silence.

Gwen came to visit mid morning and update Jack on the tests they'd been able to run so far. It was all new to them, an unidentified species that Tosh had begun to collect info on and try and find anything similar that they could archive it with. Of course they'd know more as soon as Owen could perform an autopsy.

"Has he been asleep long?" Gwen asked quietly, nodding at Ianto who had drifted off again.

"No," Jack shook his head. "He was awake just before you turned up. I was just telling him that we caught the alien."

"Have you…" Gwen hesitated. "Have the doctor's said anything about how he is?"

"You mean if he's…" Jack couldn't bring himself to say it. He just shook his head. "No. They said they wouldn't be able to tell until they can perform a few tests and for now they think he should just rest."

"I think I'd be tired if I'd had to undergo heart, brain and abdominal surgery, on top of the tube down my throat, the catheter and the chemically induced coma," Gwen agreed. "Poor guy."

"Mm," Jack rubbed Ianto's hand gently.

--

Cameron was down in the clinic marking something on a patient file before picking up another. She suddenly ran into Harper who was doing the same thing.

"Oh, hey," she smiled at him.

"Hey," he grinned and grabbed his own file. "House got you working down here too, huh?"

"Not exactly," Cameron shrugged. "I thought I'd make myself useful while we haven't actually got a case."

"Ah," Harper nodded. "I suppose answering House's mail must get boring after a while."

"You can say that again," Cameron laughed. She paused. She knew she shouldn't ask, but it was really getting to her. "So you and Sato, are you..?"

Harper looked up so fast Cameron was surprised he didn't get whiplash. He went wide eyed as he quickly babbled out some excuse.

"Not… no," he shook his head vehemently. "I mean… she's liked me for ages… but… but…"

Cameron nodded and walked away, grinning to herself. She'd got her answer.

--

It took House ages to finally catch up with Wilson again a few hours later. He was preparing to go home, having ordered his team to keep an eye on the possibly brain damaged patient. So he'd come looking for Wilson to see if he needed a lift.

When he finally found the Oncologist he was stood outside House's patient's room, watching the boyfriend talk quietly to his sleeping partner.

"He's going to be devastated if Ianto turns out to no longer be able to wipe his own ass," House said in an undertone, coming to a stop next to Wilson.

"Ianto?" Wilson glanced at House and the maverick doctor suddenly realised the mistake he'd made.

"The patient," House shrugged. "Whatever. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Just thinking that Jack's going to be miserable if Ianto's not ok," Wilson sighed.

House watched the patient for a moment, before glancing at Wilson, trying to figure out exactly why the Oncologist was down here.

"What did you want to say to me?" He asked gently.

"When?" Wilson looked at him frowning.

"Before," House leant his back against the cold glass wall, watching Wilson carefully.

"Nothing," Wilson shook his head.

"It must have been something," House pressed. "What was it?"

"I just…" Wilson sighed. "I don't even know if I want to admit it to myself."

"Admit what?" House sounded worried now. "You're not ill are you?"

"No," Wilson smiled slightly. Of course House would think that. What other conclusion would he jump to? "Look, we'll talk about it later, ok?"

"Ok," House decided to drop the subject for now. "I was thinking about that pizza…"

Wilson frowned at him.

"For tea," House elaborated. "And I came to find you to see if you wanted a lift home? Or… a lift to the hotel to pick up your stuff first?"

"Yeah, thanks," Wilson smiled slightly and fell into step beside House as they wandered away down the corridor.


End file.
